Jeremy Martinez has positioned himself to succeed. It’s a spot he has worked hard to get, that small patch of dirt behind home plate where he has excelled and, as of last fall, has called his own.

Martinez moved into USC’s catcher job this season after a two-year wait behind All-American Garrett Stubbs, an eighth-round pick in last summer’s MLB Draft.

Yet Martinez didn’t just emerge from Stubbs’ shadow in his first full season as the Trojans’ catcher. The former Mater Dei High standout also has grabbed the spotlight from his predecessor, becoming the second USC catcher in as many years to be named a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award, given to the nation’s top collegiate catcher.

Stubbs won the award last season, and Martinez wants to make it back-to-back Trojans.

“When he won, I decided that was something I wanted to do and I told him we’re going to go back-to-back,” Martinez said. “That’s something I’m very motivated about and going to strive to do. I want to put up big numbers to bring it back to L.A.”

The finalists will be announced June 6 and Martinez has a good shot at being one of the three names called. In the 51 games he has started behind the plate, Martinez has thrown out 23 of 53 would-be base stealers. At the plate, he has been just as impressive. He ranks second on the team with a .375 batting average and has six home runs and 39 RBI. Martinez also is ranked nationally as the eighth-toughest hitter to strike out, whiffing once every 20 at-bats.

“He’s not vulnerable to any pitch – breaking ball, fastball,” USC coach Dan Hubbs said. “He’s a professional hitter. You can see that in his differential of his walks to strikeouts, in his batting average and how he’s gotten better year after year.”

The team, however, hasn’t followed along.

USC’s baseball team has suffered through an injury-ravaged season that has left the Trojans (26-27, 13-14 Pac-12) looking for little more than a strong finish in its final regular-season series against Arizona State this weekend. USC is seventh in the muddled Pac-12 standings but could finish as high as second with help.

Still, Martinez isn’t giving in, at least not until the final out.

“We’ve had a lot of adversity, but I’m proud of the guys,” Martinez said. “We’ve dealt with a lot of injuries, trying to get through things.

“We’re still battling and there’s still a shot. We’re not going to quit until we know we are out.”

That never-say-quit attitude was something ingrained in all three of Joey and Patty Martinez’s children. It’s a trait Joey Martinez inherited from his father while growing up in Santa Ana, and a characteristic that enabled him to rise from laborer to project manager for a real estate development company.

Joey Martinez and his wife married after graduating from high school and started their family immediately. Shortly after their first child was born, Joey Martinez decided to first change jobs, then his life.

After putting aside some money, he eventually moved his young family from a gang-infested neighborhood to Fountain Valley. It wasn’t easy; sometimes Joey Martinez worked two or three jobs to keep the family afloat.

“I woke up every day knowing that my family was depending on me,” Joey Martinez said. “Everyday I woke up, it was for them. Everything I did was for them.”

Even when he didn’t feel like it.

Often times, Jeremy dragged his father to the local batting cages at night, not realizing how many hours the man had just clocked at work. Joey never begged off from going, never said no, never broke the bond they had developed through baseball.

“I had a lot of energy back then,” Joey Martinez said. “Had I been older, I might not have been as willing.”

“We found that passion,” said Jeremy, who was named a high school All-American at Mater Dei. “We loved it. We watched it (baseball) together, we talked about it together. We still text all the time. Our motto is heart of a champion.

“He instilled a heart of a champion in me and that’s something that I live by today. It’s my life motto.”

Hubbs said Jeremy Martinez is “obsessed” with baseball.

“There have been times I would get into work at 7:45a.m. and Jeremy would be walking out of the batting cages because he couldn’t hit with us before practice because he had a class,” Hubbs said. “He’s just obsessed with being a great baseball player, and that’s what separates guys.

“There are guys who are good players and they are fine with what you do at practice and they do enough to get by. But that’s not enough for him. He wants to be a great player. He wants to play in the major leagues. He wants to play a long time ... he wants to be great.”

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